


Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

by NewVega



Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-01 06:01:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18330068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewVega/pseuds/NewVega
Summary: “Get in, play damsel in distress, steal all their shit and get out.”Deputy Rook is an accomplished military operative, but can she pull off the riskiest undercover mission in Hope County? In a bunker alone with her sworn enemies, she must weave a web of lies and deception to earn their trust and secrets then assassinate their leader - a man who trusts and cares for her from the moment they meet.Basedon the idea of an alternate storyline many people wanted to play after finishing Farcry 5 - what would happen if you could side with Eden's Gate and have to deal with the Resistance instead?





	1. Eyes On Target

**Author's Note:**

> This is a bit of a short chapter to start but they will get longer if people like this! Thankyou for reading!

Rook sighed as she trailed her fingers across the back of the sofa. She was doing a last walk of the house before leaving for her mission. Never a woman concerned much with luxury, but her new husband had given her everything she could have ever wanted in their home and she knew it would be hard leaving behind its familiar comforts.  
“Something on your mind?” came a soft, low voice from the doorway. Rook turned to look at her beloved Jacob.  
“I'm just gonna miss all this, you know? I mean, the Whitetail's bunker isn't exactly gonna be a palace.”  
Jacob huffed a soft laugh and stepped forward to wrap his arms around her, his comforting scent of cedar and cinnamon filled her senses.  
“I know, honey, but I'm sure you can get this done in a few weeks. All we need is their intel. Sure, there's some good soldiers in there who got real potential but we don't necessarily need more men on the ground if it becomes too much of a hassle to convince them to join us.”  
Jacob rested his chin on his wife's shoulder and breathed deep – they had rarely been apart since they met and he wasn't sure how comfortable he was sending her down into the den of the enemy, but as an expert spy and soldier she was their best shot.  
“Right, right.” Rook relaxed into his embrace. “Get in, play damsel in distress, steal all their shit and get out.”  
Jacob's body shook with laughter around her.  
“Damsel in distress, huh?” He pulled himself slightly away to look into her eyes and flash his bright, heart-stopping smile – a smile he kept just for her.  
Maybe it wasn't the best plan, but it was the best they could come up with. There was no way Rook could waltz into the Whitetail's bunker and just announce that she was on their side and could she see their plans, maps and armory please. The militia had already made their collective mind up about The Project, and about Jacob in particular. Maybe... well 'cult' wasn't so far off from what Eden's Gate had going on and yes maybe some people weren't entirely happy about them taking over the county. But Jacob's army was built of soldiers who enlisted out of choice, who agreed with the family's ideals and wanted to dismantle and rebuild society. However, Rook and Jacob both knew that she would have to play upon the stories of the Big Bad Wolf of the mountains for her to get in and be trusted. They had to see her as someone to save, paint themselves as heroes so she could get to their information unharmed and take out Eli with as little fuss as possible.

Jacob lifted her chin softly with his finger tips bringing her back out of her thoughts.  
“Remember, find out everything they have first. At a minimum we gotta come out of this with what they know about us – I need to know where their cameras are, their communications range and what kind of fire power they got.” He swallowed, suddenly nervous.  
“ Most importantly, we need to know what their movements are against us if this all goes to shit. I'm – I'm scared, Rook. If I had anyone else that could do what you do I'd send them instead. The only reason I can send you is because our information says they don't know who you are, but if you get even a sniff that they might suspect you, you gotta get out of there. If they find out that they have my wife then – I don't know what they'll do.”  
“Hey, it's gonna be ok.” She kissed him softly, desperate to reassure him. “I'll be fine, I can take care of myself. I wouldn't be your Deputy if I couldn't hold my own.” Rook grinned and winked at him earning her a chuckle. She slipped her wedding band off her finger, the motion tugging at both of their hearts. Placing the warm metal into Jacobs hand she gently closed his scarred fingers around it before winding her arms around his neck and standing up on her toes to make the tips of their noses meet.  
“There is one thing I need from you while I'm gone -”  
“Anything.”  
“Let the dogs on the bed, would you?” She spoke softly against his lips. Jacob scoffed and rolled his eyes.  
“Honey, they are wolves. Not Dogs.” Jacob groaned at the subject of their constant marital bickering, but he couldn't help the smile that spread across his lips.  
“Oh go on!” Rook pouted at him, in full puppy-eyes mode. “I let them on the bed when you're working over night anyway!”  
“I didn't hear that!” 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“I can't do it, Dep.” Riley shifted nervously in front of his superior - who was also his friend.  
“This has to be believable. It's one thing to have me tied to the chair but right now I look like I want to be here so come on, man, hit me.”  
Rook was a ball of nerves already, having left Jacob at their home hidden deep in the forest. Her breath felt hot in the cool room of the cabin, eyes darted around to do a final check of the scene she and her lieutenant had set up. Projector on a loop in front of her, other bodies tied to chairs around her – she had to be the only survivor when the Whitetail's got here following their 'tip' about one of Jacob's presentations to some potential new recruits.  
“Look, I won't be mad -”  
“It's not you I'm worried about.”  
“Jacob won't be mad. He'll be mad if I get caught. Now come on, Riley we don't have long!”  
“Just, be careful in there won't you?” The lieutenant was tall and imposing, dark strands of hair flopped forward grazing the lids of his forest-green eyes. Rook had never seen him this worried, not even when they enlisted and got their first look at the infamous Jacob Seed.  
“Look I'll be fine. I'm the greatest actress there is!” She winked, easing a grin out of her friend.  
“And I'll be coming back a few times to give any information I've managed to get and plan my movements from there which means someone – and by someone I mean you – is going to be coming to 'kidnap' me. Come on, man I know that dramatically shooting me with a blank 'bliss bullet' and then dumping me in the back of your truck for the sake of their crazy camera set up sounds like fun to you don't even try to deny it!” Riley laughed finally, stepping forward towards his friend and placing a calloused hand on her cheek. She held his gaze for a few heartbeats and prayed to the Father that he would be safe and strong in her absence.  
“Now... hit me. That's an order solider.”


	2. Campfire Tales

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rook comes face to face with Eli and The Whitetails.

Rook's eye was swelling. God, Riley had a good right-hook. Her face felt wet on the floor where they had laid her chair down and she hoped that whatever liquid it was had come from her sore cheek. The cabin was dark and musty, the only light in the room coming from Jacob's projector that she had been watching on the far wall for the last hour. She rolled her eyes to herself and sighed - the Whitetail's apparently had no sense of urgency about them. If Rooks unit had a tip off like this they would be there in five to check it out. Jacob may have thought these soldiers had potential but they weren't impressing his deputy yet. She stretched her feet inside of her worn boots as best as she could clicking her toes as the presentation started again. The music had been a nice touch but as much as she loved her and Jacob's song she would give anything to get up and turn it off after this long. 

Cautious footsteps tapped on the porch outside pausing as the door was pushed open with the barrel of a gun.  
“We're clear! Move in!” A husky voice echoed into the cabin and Rook slowed her breathing, letting her mouth hang open just a little and leaving a sliver of her eyes visible. Four sets of heavy boots moved around the room, hushed complaints about the smell of the bodies and a _someone shut that music off ___  
Rook felt the heat of someone crouched close in front of her and a soft, much younger voice seemed to be talking to himself.  
“Christ, it's Sully. When did they get him?” Rook hadn't had a thought about who the bodies had been in the room with her, seeing them just as props for her mission. She wondered now how many of them were Whitetails and it irritated her how they didn't seem to be able to keep tabs on all of their men.  
“Why are we even bothering with this they're all dead.”  
“Check em anyways.” The harsh voice from before cut him off.  
“Why am I always stuck on corpse duty.” The younger man moved towards Rook again and she kept herself limp as he pulled her chair back up onto its wheels. She flickered her eyes and inhaled sharply as if just regaining conciousness.  
“Holy Shit!” He dropped her chair - Christ she was going to have a headache.  
“Live one!” The husky voice that she could now see belonged to Eli Palmer, shouted towards the door. So Eli came himself? He had to know he had a target on his back and this was Jacobs territory. Maybe the Whitetails didn't have the numbers they had previously thought. The younger man apologised as he and Eli righted her chair again, she kept her lids low but got a good look at the one who had found her.  
_Too young_ , she thought. Two long braids hung down from under his baseball cap that sat backwards on his head and his eyes were full of fear. Were all of Eli's men just scared children like this one? As the men lifted Rook by her arms and helped her to walk, they told her they'd be taking her back to The Wolf's Den – the Whitetail's bunker itself. The whole thing felt a little too easy to Rook and it put her on edge. Was Eli really this naïve - he immediately trusted that she was in need and was taking her into his base to be amongst his people without even knowing who she was. She kept her ears on the men as they discussed someone named Tammy who would apparently _not be happy about this._ Tammy sounded like the only one among them with any sense.  
Rook let herself go heavy and drag her feet forcing Eli to carry her but the younger man kept one hand under her arm for balance.

“Like, can you talk or anything yet?”  
“She needs rest.” Eli huffed out, stopping to change his grip on her.  
“What's your name?” There was genuine concern in the kid's voice, he reminded her of Riley when he was younger.  
“People... people call me Rook. Who are you?” She kept her voice soft and did her best to make it crack like she needed water.  
“I'm Wheaty, we're The Whitetail Militia.”  
“We're the best chance these mountains got against Jacob Seed, Rook.”  
Eli helped her into the back of a van and got in beside her keeping a strong arm around her small waist to keep her upright. Rook knew her size was deceptive – just like the rest of her – her loose combat trousers and flannel shirt hid her muscular limbs and defined abs. She was small yes, but her body had been trained into an efficient combat machine capable of taking down a man almost twice her weight. She had a strength like no other, something that Jacob had seen in her the very first time their eyes met; that brief moment of attention from him pushed her to train harder than any other recruit. 

Finally Rook let her eyes open properly and she blinked at the sunlight coming in through the windows of the van. The other Whitetails finished packing up and hopped into the back opposite her and Eli. The vehicles engine roared and they pulled away from the cabin.  
Eli Palmer looked just as he had in their file on him, but his long hair and unkempt beard almost hid the softness in him. It would be easy to mistake him for one of the Projects followers if not for the emblems of the militia all over his clothing.  
“Gosh you're a tiny thing, ain't you? Gotta be real tough to survive Jacob I'm not sure how you did it.” His free hand passed Rook a bottle of water from under the bench seat. She gulped half of it down and cleared her throat.  
“He told me – he told me that I'm strong. That the others there were weak and wouldn't survive. He kept talking about the world being soft and how he needed strong soldiers to cull the weak.”  
She stared at nothing and took a deep breath.  
“He said he's going to come for me.”  
“We're going to do everything we can to stop him. You know how to use a gun?”  
“Yeah, I was a Deputy Sheriff before -”  
“Before the Seeds we were all something else.” Eli looked away but gave Rooks arm a gentle squeeze of comfort. They rode the rest of the way in silence. 

__________________________________________________________ _ _ _ _ _

The Wolves Den was unremarkable from the outside. Rook could see an open hatch leading down into the earth as she stepped out of the van with Eli and Wheaty's help.  
“Run in ahead and let Tammy know we got company” Eli instructed one of his men who proceeded to jog down the steps in front of them. Rook took a deep breath of the fresh forest air – she didn't know how long it would be until she could be outside again. A breeze caught the trees next to them and rustled hundreds of leaves in a gentle whisper that took her mind back to a more peaceful time in these same woods. Her and Jacob had been married in a clearing not far from the veteran's centre, the warm summer air moving through the trees was the only music they needed. 

They took the short flight of stairs down, Rooks eyes adjusting to the artificial lights to see a tall woman in a cardigan come striding out of the adjoining room.  
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” She spat the words at Eli but her harsh gaze never left Rook.  
“This is stupid and this is dangerous.”  
“What was I supposed to do?” Eli eased Rook down onto a worn sofa as Wheaty sat on her other side.  
“You can't trust this one.”  
Rook bit back a smirk. She could see Tammy was strong and had conviction, just the kind of person she and Jacob considered valuable – she liked her already.  
“I wanna talk to her. _Alone_ , boys.” The two men looked warily at Rook before stepping out of the room, leaving her and Tammy in the claustrophobic space.  
It was time to drop just a little bit of the act.  
Tammy strode over and sat down on a wooden chair opposite the beat up sofa, arms crossed over her chest. She had a strong build and was dressed for practicality. Rook placed her at around mid to late thirties – she was probably around half way between hers and Jacobs ages – but her eyes were hard like that of a soldier who had seen too many tours. She was unfamiliar to Rook, Tammy seemed to think she knew much about Jacobs operation but Rook couldn't place where her information could have come from. They thought they had information on the key players in the group, but perhaps they had been wrong.  
Jacob loved to mess with the Militia, he played up to the campfire stories about him, enjoying knowing that he kept their nerves on a knifes edge. It was one of the things she admired about her husband, how his strategy was so thorough and consisted of much more than just physical attacks. Psychological warfare was his specialty. A nervous soldier was a soldier who made rash, uncoordinated decisions; and the Whitetails were getting skittish. 

“Talk. Now.” Rook met her eyes and sat up straight, having the others think they needed to protect her like a weak little lamb would work, but she needed to instill some doubt and fear into this woman.  
“About?”  
“What did he get you to do?”  
Rook chuckled but there was no hint of cheer in her voice and she knew in that moment she sounded like Jacob.  
“By the sounds of things, you already know.”  
Tammy felt her skin prickle at the young woman's tone.  
“Look. I get the impression that he's had a hold of you a lot longer than Eli figures and I'm not saying that you're a bad person, I'm just saying that we don't know what's gonna set you off.”  
Rook cocked her head slightly – so the Whitetail woman believed the stories of Jacobs conditioning, this could work in Rooks favour. She would play dumb then.  
“Set me off? Really? You're worried I'm gonna have a breakdown or some shit?”  
Tammy fell for it, she smiled coldly and shook her head.  
“Ohh darlin' you're a fighter I can tell. That's why he wants you. No, I'm talking about whatever trigger he's got implanted in you to set you off on a mindless killing spree. It'll be in there alright -” She tapped her index finger against her temple. “- and that's why you're too dangerous to have down here.” 

_____________________________________________ _ _ _ _ _

_____________Rook stood to attention alongside the rest of her unit, she had enlisted two days ago and it was time for the new recruits to meet the great Jacob Seed. She could feel the nerves in the man stood to her left. He kept swallowing and it was getting irritating._  
_“Excited?” A tall, dark-haired recruit on her right spoke to her, she could tell he was doing his best to fight his nerves._  
_“Yes.” She was blunt she knew, but she had to be in order to be respected by these men._  
_“I'm Riley, by the way, Riley Jameson.”_  
_“Billie Rook, but just call me -”_  
_Heavy footsteps silenced her as Jacob Seed stepped into the room. Without a word he slowly strode along the line of Rooks unit, inspecting each new recruit. He was even taller than she had expected with broad shoulders and a strong proud chest. His arms, neck and face covered in scars and his eyes – his eyes were an icy cold blue that sent a shiver down Rooks spine._  
_The third man down the line Jacob sent away immediately._  
_“You're weak - I can't work with weak.” He kept walking, seeming relatively content with each of his new soldiers though not one of them would meet his gaze. It was an unspoken rule that new recruits didn't look at Jacob and didn't speak until spoken to. Rook took a second to calm herself, she knew she was smaller than the others and would have to train much harder...if she even made it past the next few minutes. He would see her as weak she knew it, but she could be fast and she was mentally stronger than the men stood next to her if he would only give her the chance and the training. After an eternity of hearing nothing but her heart pounding in her chest and Jacob's heavy boots, a strong chest clad in a grey shirt came into her line of sight._  
_Rook tensed her jaw, tilted her head up to stare right into those frosty eyes and time stopped around her. Did she have a death wish? She could see him looking around her features as if committing her face to memory. The corner of Jacobs lip quivered up into a smirk. They were stood so close she felt like she was breathing his air, he smelt like cedar and pine and it lit her senses on fire._

_____________Jacob looked down into a pair of large dark eyes. The other recruits wouldn't look at him they knew their place – but this one - his first thought was that this one should be punished. Set an example of her, but something about the young woman caught his attention. She wasn't looking at him like a rabbit in headlights like many others did. She held her own, and stared him down as though they were on equal footing; as if she had as much to teach him as he did to her. There was a hardness in the her that had him intrigued. She was a pretty little thing, he let himself think. A delicate scattering of freckles over the bridge of her nose and soft, full pink lips. Jacob felt himself smirk as he let his mind stray to a thought of what they might taste like._  
_He might entertain that idea again if she survived her first few weeks._  
_“I'll be watching you – closely. Impress me.”_  
_His smile dropped as he moved on to the next recruit – Riley – who seemed to pass a very brief inspection. Jacob strode back over in front of them all, calloused hands clasped behind his back. Rook couldn't help it, her eyes darted down to his thigh holster – or more so what it was strapped around – and she bit her lip. She could feel his gaze searing into her and she looked up to meet it, lower lip still in her teeth._  
_“Your training starts today, soldiers. Meet your commanding officer out on the range for your firearms assessment. Know that this will not be easy, but if you are dedicated and you are strong then you will succeed. If you are weak then you will fail and I do not accept weakness, but my judges will be glad of the meal.” Not one of them missed the threat._  
_With a final look at Rook, Jacob strode out of the room. The recruits all let out a sigh of relief, finally relaxing._  
_“Oh man he's got it in for you, short stuff! Damn, you'd better be careful!” Rook was pulled out of her trance by a blonde man who looked like he might throw up now that Jacob had gone._  
_“I'll do anything but be careful.” She mumbled to herself , running her tongue along her lips._  
_Riley shifted closer to Rook nervously._  
_“He looked like he wanted to eat you.”_


	3. Cull The Herd

Rook huffed and looked at her watch, _6:15pm,_ she hoped that Jacob was home eating a real dinner. He had promised that he would try to sleep and eat regularly while she was gone, but she knew how easy it was for him to forget. Taking care of himself hadn't exactly been one of his priorities when they had met. The Jacob back then was seemingly calm and strong to his men, but it wasn't long before Rook got the opportunity to get to know him; finding he did the bare minimum to keep himself running.   
His perpetual dark circles were the result of him trying to stay awake as long as possible every night to avoid the torment of his dreams. Jacob survived on whatever food he had hunted for himself and shaved only his neck and undercut with the edge of his knife. Every activity was born out of necessity. Even their initial hookups happened because watching Rook training hard at the lodge and besting the other men in her sparring matches filled him with so much want and need that taking care of himself after to the thought of her pinning him down and straddling him wasn't cutting it anymore.   
Later she tried her best to show him the importance of self care even if only doing so to make sure he was in good shape to take care of others. He was learning to deal with his nightmares and had enjoyed learning to cook meals to experience them for the taste, not what they could give to him. But Rook knew that if he had a rough patch while she was gone, he would struggle to get back on track.

There weren't many of their soldiers that had the patience for this kind of mission – she'd been in the Whitetail's bunker for 7 hours and 12 minutes and to many it would seem that she was no closer to getting what they wanted. Rook knew the importance of the trust she would already be building with the militia, but God was she getting hungry.  
“So what do you guys do for dinner down here?” She tilted her head to the side from where it lay on the musty cushions to see Tammy staring at her from the corner. Wheaty was at the bench on the other side of the room looking through a crate of records he'd picked up recently. He'd been tasked to watch Rook closely in case she “snaps and guns us all down” but Tammy didn't think the young Whitetail would take his job too seriously.  
The stern woman pushed herself away from the wall she'd been leaning against and strode silently out of the room.  
“Christ and people think _I'm_ cold.” Rook muttered to herself.

Wheaty was still seemed preoccupied and was humming a tune to himself, but turned his attention to Rook as the creak of the ancient couch frame alerted him to her sitting up. Her mental file on Wheaty was growing – mid to late teens, local accent, very little combat experience, looked to Eli as a father figure for sure, eager to please and make friends – making him her best place to start in this group.  
“Kid I...I wanna thank you again for getting me out of there today. Don't know what would have happened if you hadn't shown up when you did.”   
She frowned and looked down at her clasped hands.  
“I want to help.”  
“Help us? The Whitetails?” Excitement shone in the kids eyes, jogging around the table he threw himself onto the chair opposite Rook.  
“Yeah. I mean despite what it looked like I can handle myself, you know? I'm lethal with a bow and a bit of a survivalist, and I won't be letting Jacob get the drop on me again.”   
Wheaty grinned, satisfied with her performance. He leaned back in his chair propping his boots up on the sofa beside her and stroked his chin in mock thought.  
“Hmmm well maybe you could be useful. It ain't up to me of course but I think you got the right stuff to be part of the militia! But first you gotta tell me your secret.”   
The boys eyes twinkled, and if it was any other person down here Rook was talking to, she knew she'd have to tread carefully. There was no way this kid had anything worked out though.  
“How'd you survive Jacob? Like I've never really seen the guy – except for in those creepy movies they leave playing in cult buildings – but he scares the shit outta me. There's something about his eyes. They're so cold, like he doesn't feel anything, like he don't have a soul. So I gotta know how you managed to get out of there without him rippin' you to shreds like he does with all the others.”  
It took Rook a moment to cool herself, sometimes her temper rivaled her husbands and right now she wanted to scream how _he felt things alright._  
He felt guilt; about not saving his brothers when they were kids, about fighting wars for a government he despised, about what happened to Miller.   
He felt fear for the collapse and the safety of his family.   
But most importantly he felt love. So much love. He loved all of his siblings so deeply, he loved his Chosen, he loved Hope County. He loved their wolves that they kept at home, he loved his prized rifle and most of all he loved his wife.   
She saw that love every single day in every single action he took.   
In his preparations for the collapse and keeping each of the heralds and Joseph safe, in the way he would dip his forehead down to meet theirs before taking each of them into his huge arms.   
She saw love in the way he kept his Chosen close to him, well fed and trained to keep each other alive – making sure they had the highest quality weapons that would not fail them.   
The way he would sometimes stand perfectly still in the forests on their hikes and just breathe the crisp, fresh air that you could never find outside of their county.  
Rook saw love in every morning cup of coffee he made her, every little love letter tucked underneath the mug. Every touch, every kiss screamed of just how capable of love he was.

Rook snapped out of it to see Wheaty staring at her concerned. She realised she'd balled her fists into the cushions beside her and quickly relaxed them, blinking tears away.  
“I'm just lucky. I'm so, so lucky.”

_________________________________________________________  
“You wanted to see me, sir?” Riley's voice was strong as he stepped into the office. It had been a long time since he was scared of Jacob Seed.   
“Take a seat, Jameson.” Jacob stubbed out his cigarette butt into an overflowing ashtray, immediately taking out two more from the carton beside him. He offered one to his friend who gladly accepted.  
“They pick her up quickly?” The already rough voice was strained around his inward breath of the smoke.  
“Took their sweet time is what they did. Almost an hour.”  
“Damn, Rook won't have been happy 'bout that.”  
Both men laughed as they thought of the woman they cared for so much.  
“Here I was trying to tell her they'd be good soldiers if we could get 'em on our side.”  
Riley frowned through the rising smoke in front of him. He had assumed his friend's end goal was to take out their enemies – she wasn't usually in the business of diplomacy.  
“You don't want Eli dead then? I thought she had to put him down?”  
“Oh I want him dead alright, we're gonna make an example of that bastard. But by that time, our Rook will have the others on our side. Cause right now they're being fed nothing but lies, they don't know what we do here, what we fight for.”   
Always Jacobs style – make an example – he didn't believe in wasting a good soldier, but his men needed to know that he wouldn't accept someone who disrespected him. 

_______________________________________________________

“Here” Tammy threw a packaged meal onto Rook's lap, stomping back to stand in her corner and stare. It was a cheap store-brand mac and cheese, Rook's absolute least favourite food on the planet. Once upon of time she'd been partial to a good homemade mac and cheese, but she'd had one too many dinners at her brother-in-laws to ever want to touch it again. John meant well, and he tried hard. Always eager to please, he made his “famous” dish from scratch – apparently the same recipe he'd once upon a time taken to a local barbecue as a peace offering. That watery bowl of hell could start holy wars.  
The first time Rook had been for a Seed family dinner she had no idea what to expect. She had briefly met Faith a few months into her relationship with Jacob – but that was post-accidental Bliss trip and couldn't really be considered a good first impression to give to her boyfriends sister. She had seen photos of Joseph and televised sermons, but had not yet had the pleasure of meeting him herself. Christ she hoped he'd be wearing a shirt that night. John on the other hand Rook had spent a decent amount of time with already. Jacob had been eager to introduce his little brother to his girlfriend very early on and they got on like a house on fire, spending time together whenever they got the opportunity. Aside from Riley, John was easily her closest friend. But that first forkful of mac and cheese was almost enough to end that friendship.

“You don't have anything else do you? I'm not really a fan.” Rook waved the package in the air, earning a quirk of an eyebrow from the other woman.  
“You'll eat what you get given for now. And who doesn't like mac and cheese, anyway?”   
Rook huffed out a laugh, the most believable lies were the ones rooted in the truth.  
“A buddy of mine makes the worst mac you'll ever taste in your life - bad enough to put a girl off of pasta....and cheese...and having friends ever again.”   
To Rooks surprise Tammy actually laughed, sauntering over to pluck the package out of the younger woman's hands. Sliding the cardboard sleeve off, she stabbed a few holes in the plastic and shoved the offending meal into the microwave on the counter top. The machine whirred quietly as Tammy came back over to rest on the sofa next to Rook.  
“Look, I don't mean to give you such a hard time. Whatever he did to you isn't your fault, I'm just trying to keep my guys safe.”   
For the first time since entering the bunker, Rook felt almost a little warmth from the woman.  
“I get it, I do. But he didn't _do_ anything to me. I mean, if we ignore how he held me captive and killed everyone else _which obviously we're not going to_ -the stuff he said wasn't crazy.”   
It was a risky move this early on, but risky had always been her style.  
“You have got to be kidding me. You don't think that psycho extreme Darwinism crap makes sense do you?”  
“All I'm saying is the world is going to shit – you can't deny that. And you guys yourselves are preppers! Everyone in Hope is preparing for the worst! Is it so crazy to think that maybe people should be trying to do something to stop the assholes in power from destroying us all? You've been outside of the county, right?”   
Tammy nodded, eyes glued to Rook her expression unreadable.  
“Then I'm sure you'll agree with me that our fields, and forests and wildlife and natural wonders are something we should be protecting! Humans wreak havoc on this Earth, and if somebody doesn't do something we're going to lose beautiful places like our county.”   
The microwave finally dinged leaving a tense silence hanging between them. Tammy pushed herself up from her seat to see to Rooks meal, dishing it out into a chipped bowl. She took her seat next to Rook again, pushing the steaming food towards her. The smell made Rooks stomach turn.  
Tammy was quiet when she finally spoke.  
“You're not...wrong. I'm getting the feeling Jacob picked you up cause you're some kind of environmentalist or whatever and maybe you have a point. My problem isn't that though. If Jacob Seeds first words in Hope County had been about _sticking it to the man_ and protecting the Earth from extinction then I would maybe have been on board. But that's not his way, is it? 'Save The Planet' ain't his motto, that's not what he scrawls on buildings and has his cult screaming. No, Jacob has three words he lives his life by, and those three words discredit any of the smart shit that he comes out with. Those three words chill me to my core and make me sick to my stomach. You know what they are, Rook?”   
Tammy turned to face her again, eyes burning with a quiet anger that boiled under her skin. She was going to be perfect. Rook met her gaze, fighting her lips from forming a smirk as she responded with the words that had become her battle cry.  
“Cull the herd.”


End file.
